shenanigan

shenanigannoun/ʃɪˈnænɪɡ(ə)n/

• 1

  datedrareinformalDishonest, underhanded, or unscrupulous activities or behaviour; skulduggery, trickery; also, mischievous behaviour or play; high jinks.

  • One of Professor [John] Moon's most astonishing "experiments," consisted of holding a watch suspended from a short chain at arm's length, and allowing anyone in the pit to pull pistol and "blaze away" at the word "fire," whereupon the watch would most unconscionably disappear. An individual who had attended several evenings and witnessed the "experiment," suspected, in the classic language of the times, that there was something of "shenanigan" in it.
  • There are stories still told how money was used and promised, but from the best knowledge I can acquire, I think this is not true. If sharp practice was played, and "shenanigan" was used, we, to-day, looking back upon those times, cannot say that evil has come of it.

shenaniganverb/ʃɪˈnænɪɡ(ə)n/

• 1

  informalTo play a deceitful confidence trick on (someone); to swindle, to trick; also, to carry out an act of mischief on (someone); to prank.

  • The habit of "shenaniganing" has become so disgracefully common at Union college that some of the right minded students have passed resolutions condemning the practice in unqualified terms. We are happy to inform the friends of Michigan University that this unmusical word, which, translated means the use of artificial aids, in examinations, is almost wholly unknown here.
  • I must have looked sceptical regarding the squirrel, as I informed him that I had not much appetite just then; but he assured me he was not "shenan-neganning" me, and that the dish would prove a delicacy.
• 2

  informalTo play a deceitful confidence trick; also, to carry out an act of mischief.

  • Then after much shenaniganing around over a period of several weeks […] we came into the committee room after this "night study" which I understand too place, and some of the Members had the bill we are now considering in a mimeographed form and some of us did not have it.
  • Was it merely a ruse to ensure that the people during that period of 12 months got used to the idea that the workshop would close, and gradually reconciled themselves to it? It does not look as if they have, but I suggest that that is one reason the Government shenaniganed around with the people of Wanganui.

這個拼法也被記錄為下列字的變化形：

• shenanigans